Newton's Herb Robinson - the musical engineer U.S. Senate candidate

Tuesday

Jun 21, 2011 at 12:01 AMJun 21, 2011 at 9:10 PM

Herb Robinson admits that he has little experience in politics, but he says that’s exactly why he has a shot at winning a seat in the U.S. Senate.

His experience includes a career as an engineer, mastering riding his new Harley Davidson and playing at blues jams at Tommy Doyle’s in his spare time. Robinson, 59, joined the growing field of Democrats that includes Newton Mayor Setti Warren looking to unseat Sen. Scott Brown, a Wrentham Republican, when he announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate earlier this month. But Robinson, who has never served an elected office, said the country needs someone like him with 30 years of experience working in the private sector to help solve the energy crisis the country is facing, not more career politicians.

Chloe Gotsis

Herb Robinson admits that he has little experience in politics, but he says that’s exactly why he has a shot at winning a seat in the U.S. Senate.

His experience includes a career as an engineer, mastering riding his new Harley Davidson and playing at blues jams at Tommy Doyle’s in his spare time. Robinson, 59, joined the growing field of Democrats that includes Newton Mayor Setti Warren looking to unseat Sen. Scott Brown, a Wrentham Republican, when he announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate earlier this month. But Robinson, who has never served an elected office, said the country needs someone like him with 30 years of experience working in the private sector to help solve the energy crisis the country is facing, not more career politicians.

“I believe my skills are more appropriate for the job and we need this massive revamp of our energy infrastructure,” said Robinson, a Newton Highlands resident. “I also believe an outsider may have a better chance of beating Scott Brown, but of course that could be my imagination running wild. Maybe because I work with high tech people, who are more indicative of the unenrolled voters than the Democratic faithful.”

Robinson grew up in a family of engineers and farmers in the small town of Pine Plains in southeastern New York. He said that he has been anti-nuclear power since before his days playing keyboard in high school and studying electrical engineering at Cornell University.

“I understand how bad [nuclear power] can be, I mean I’m an engineer,” he said. “Now I’m really going public with the need to shut these [nuclear power plants] down. They should be decommissioned once they reach their lifespan.”

As an engineer and as a songwriter Robinson told the Newton TAB he likes to solve puzzles and will often write songs with hidden political messages. He said the song “Our House is Burning,” which he wrote for his band, The Towering Pretzels, is about industrial pollution and its dangerous affects on the Earth.

Robinson’s interest in political activism began one night in 2006 when he was listening to Democratic Congressman Barney Frank, also a Newton resident, speak in Newton Corner.

“Someone was upset that [Barney Frank] wasn’t going after something that they wanted him to and [Frank] got a little cross and said, ‘Well if you don ‘t like what I’m doing, run for office.’ I’m sitting in the back there and thought ‘I could do that,” said Robinson, who now works for Stratus Technologies.

A year later, Robinson said he toyed briefly with the idea of running against Frank knowing that he “would never, ever beat him,” but strictly because he wanted to plug alternative energy.

“Truth be told our politics were about the same,” Robinson said about his chances at beating Frank in a primary campaign.

In 2008, Robinson canvassed for President Barack Obama’s campaign in New Hampshire, Ohio and in Newton. And in 2009 he took his political volunteering to a more local level when he volunteered for Ken Parker’s mayoral campaign in the preliminary election, accompanying the candidate while he canvassed door to door.

Parker, a former Newton alderman, said Robinson was a very hard worker, who can accomplish a lot if he sets his mind to something.

“He’s the opposite of what I would call a phony plastic prepackaged candidate,” Parker said. “There’s nothing phony about Herb. He is what he is. A lot of people make a lot of promises on campaigns but Herb Robinson’s a guy who follows through on them and that’s important in a candidate and a senator.”

After Parker lost in the preliminary, Robinson jumped in to help state Rep. Ruth Balser on her campaign against now Mayor Setti Warren. Balser told the TAB she was impressed with Robinson’s dedication to her campaign – he would sit at her headquarters and call neighbors and residents for hours at a time.

“He’s an extraordinarily dedicated person,” she said.

Robinson described himself as “a little bit of a spaceshot” and “pretty quiet and laid back,” but he acknowledged these are qualities he would like to work on while trying to enhance his political career.

On the political side, Robinson referred to himself as socially liberal and fiscally conservative, and even admitted that he can be “pretty cheap sometimes.’ But he said often if there’s a conflict between his fiscal conservativeness and liberal ideals, the social ideas will win out.

While he admitted he is “behind the ball” of the rest of the announced Democratic candidates for Senate, Robinson said he is now going to get out and meet as many people as he possibly can and fundraise. He also joked that his new Harley Davidson could help save him some money on gas when he’s traveling around the state campaigning.

Staff writer Chloe Gotsis can be reached at 781-433-8333 or at cgotsis@wickedlocal.com